Hi folks,
I want to take a final call.
Shall i go with v11 or v12 (I am right now in October end of 2019).
I am having too many issues due to bench upgrade and (unstable) i.e, develop version of erpnext v12.
ERPNext and frappe are doing wonders but unstable bench, erpnext and frappe are giving me sleepless nights.
Please respond.
For stability, I would suggest sticking to v11. However if you’re going to customize v11 it may become difficult to migrate to v12 in the future.
I would do my best for work within v12. I know that sounds like a crazy thing to say, but there is no real way of getting anything fixed in v11 and at some point the upgrade process from v11 to v12 is going to get broken again. When that happens, it is not likely the core development team will have much interest in going back in to fix it. That is not how they operate. They only push on to the next new feature and wait for a community member to actually fix anything that is broken and submit it as a pull request. Even then it (meaning any submitted fixes) may not get accepted and implemented.
Take the opportunity to migrate to v12 while that process still works and then continue to press the dev team to fix the bench issues while they are still working on v12. I would guess that by the first of the year, they will delegate v12 to be on legacy support like v10 and v11. So now is the time to get it and get it working. Any later and the path to move past v11 may be gone.
This is only my opinion based on my past experiences since v7 of Frappe/ERPnext and as always,
Your mileage may vary… 
BKM
that sounds a bit scary. Wouldn’t you think there may be hope that the workability v11 > v12 upgrades may be supported better then with past version as v11 & v12 are both official stable releases now?
Umm… NO!
Did you already forget the problems that quickly arose in v10 as soon as v11 became the latest release? V10 is still very broken. It is not even possible to install a fresh copy of v10 as a production server (and YES it too is still a supported version).
If you really think that it is safe to ASSUME that you will be always able to easily upgrade from v11 to v12, then you have not been following along as the ever increasing growing pains of this project progress through time.
There have been periods of months long agony when the upgrade process from v10 or v11 was broken, then fixed, then broken again.
It is always better to be prepared for the worst while you pray for the best. However, the evidence is very clear. Once a version is not the focus of the core dev team, then only community provided fixes are even “considered” (not necessarily even merged).
Since the bulk of the developer expertise is in the core team, very little will ever be fixable by the community due to the heavy burden of getting PR’s past the approval process.
So, now knowing the status of the project, I would always suggest to try to work within the current focus version and work aggressively to get the problems of that version fixed through the attention of the core dev team. If you find this to be to difficult for you to manage, then you should probably consider using some other ERP system.
I do not necessarily like the options myself, but I believe the project has a better chance of getting better over time than it does of dying altogether.
Again, just my opinion and as always,
Your mileage may vary…
BKM
I totally get your point, still
v10 at least is not listed in the “Releases” listing (on the bottom) of https://erpnext.com. I don’t exactly remember what the commitment about new LTS support was (I believe it was starting with v11, but I may be wrong here)
And, of course, it may not be justified (or advisable) to trust the support (and with it the support for the v11 > v12 upgrade) was actually being guaranteed to some extent just because someone said so. Even though it would serve the trust in the project on the whole a lot if you could.
what I find most address-worthy are the statements about the troubles that apparently seem to exist in getting PR’s merged (even bug fixes). Of course someone has to look over the quality of any fix, but I believe this may be an actual problem which needs to be solved.
I see a conflict of interest here. … the maintainers (and likewise gatekeepers to the core code) are solely committed to the interests of the product erpnext.com. And those interests may not always meet the interests/requirements of the Community as a whole. Solving those conflicts may be having the most positive impact on the project on the whole.
Well, here is the head of the core teams in his own words talking about what the true meaning of “supported” is in reality:
At the time of that posting, v10 was one of the long term supported versions. In fact it was supposed to remain that way until 01/01/2020. If it has fallen off that list already, it is because they got tired of people complaining that nothing is getting fixed.
So, there again is your indicator of just how dedicated the core team is to keeping anything other than the latest releases working.
Please understand… This is open source, not a product that you pay a great deal of money to use. Although, in this projects current trajectory, it will wind up costing any implementer far more than they bargained for by the time they get it fully deployed. The management of frappe/erpnext is not within our sphere of influence. It is purely up to the core team developers how they want their project to progress. We are happy to have access to it, and even the ability to change it locally on our servers. However, this is not a place where you spend money and could therefore expect to have any influence over how the product is created and dispersed.
So, I stand by my recommendations that you do your best to work with the latest releases or simply select a different ERP product to meet your needs.
BKM
Sound advice, I could not agree more here BKM
To expect Frappe to fix ‘everything’ or to hold them to account for all they commit to or try to deliver on, is clearly unreasonable. I think the majority here recognize their health and survival is in the best interest of all.
Whether Frappe’s role represents some sort of ‘conflict’ - they have done their best to promote a Foundation; the Community best support that to address both the ‘greater common good’ and also relieve Frappe from this burden.
This is not really a conflict as it is the same product that is being delivered at ERPNext.com
More than 50% of accounts on ERPNext.com are still on v10
i have being using version 10 with 0 issues.
And yes i would love to install a fresh copy but it will not allow me to.